SHOT THROUGHT THE HEART!!!

About 6 weeks ago a friend posted a picture of her Bon Jovi Concert ticket on facebook. This was the conversation Tim and I had:

E: “Mindi posted a picture of her ticket to see Bon Jovi. She’s always wanted to see him and now she is going.”
T: “Are you going?”
E: “No.”
T: “Why not? Isn’t he your man? Don’t you love him?”
E: “I don’t love him but he is my favorite.”
T: “Then why aren’t you going?”

So I went to Bon Jovi’s facebook page, saw two friends who live here that like him (Charlotte and Rita) and sent out an email. Fast forward five long weeks and we were headed off to Glendale, AZ to see Bon Jovi in concert!

I need to insert a big THANK-YOU to Tim. He not only came home early so we could go BUT offered to watch kids so we could leave even earlier than we had planned! I told him we were leaving at 3:30 pm and he said that would be pushing it. I explained Charlotte couldn’t leave until Parker (her oldest) got home to watch the younger boys. Tim’s response was, “Well, if it’s just watching kids for an hour, then go early. I’ll watch them.” AND HE DID! He picked them all up from school, took all the kids back to Charlotte’s to wait for Parker to get home and even made the boys do their homework! Such a great guy!!

Ok, enough gushing…..

We left at 2:30 all “decked” out. We hit rush hour traffic around 4:30 but still made it to the arena by 5:30 pm, two hours ahead of concert time. We got dinner at In and Out and had a great time visiting. I don’t do girls night out like that often but it sure is sooo much fun when I do!

We headed back to the arena and waited for, what should have been a little less than 1 1/2 hrs but at 7:30 the big screen said, “30 minutes to start time.:” It ended up being good for Mindi, who came with some other friends of hers, Kellie and Julene. They might have missed a little bit. Finally at 8:13 Bon Jovi took the stage and the place went crazy!!! We had “great” seats which made it even better. We were a couple rows down from the main level of the arena, looking straight at the stage. It wasn’t the floor but we could see. I say “great” because the couple in front of us gave us quite a show too, only it was a little bit naughty and not nearly as fun!

They played all the classics and a few of the songs from their new album. He started with “That’s What the Water Made Me” from the latest album and ended with “I Love This Town” (the second encore of the night). He sang 26 songs and the band had a couple little interludes of their own. Completely amazing. The only bummer was Richie Sambora was not there. :(  I was a little bummed a few songs didn’t get played but since they have 12 original albums, 2 greatest hits albums and 2 live albums, with mostly great songs, I guess they just can’t sing them all.

The favorites of the night were the classic stuff: Born to Be My Baby, Raise Your Hands, Keep the Faith, You Give Love a Bad Name, I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, It’s My Life (a little newer), Bed of Roses, Bad Medicine, Wanted Dead or Alive, We Got It Going On (it’s a little newer), Living On A Prayer (which was the last song of the first encore. I thought they would have ended the show with that one). Instead they came out and did Always and ended with I Love This Town. I liked all the songs they played but the crowd didn’t go as crazy for those: What the Water Made Me, Have a Nice Day, Who Says You Can’t Go Home, Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen From Mars, Want to Make A Memory, We Weren’t Born to Follow, Lost Highway, Whole Lot of Leaving, Because We Can, What About Now, Last Man Standing. He got a big cheer when he channeled his “inner Jagger” and they played Start Me Up and he moved like Mick Jagger.

I was a little sad they didn’t play anything from their Bounce album, like Bounce or Misunderstood or Love Me Back to Life. They also didn’t play I’ll Be There For You (but I am pretty sure Jon always sings that one with Richie and he wasn’t there….), Blood on Blood, Lay Your Hands on Me, Runaway, One Wild Night, Summertime and I could go on. It was a great show! I was hoarse and sweaty. My feet hurt and we didn’t get home until after 2 am but it was ALL WORTH IT!!! I’m so glad I went and that I had the company of two great ladies to boot! And so glad Mindi decided to go and posted a picture of her ticket online and that I told Tim about it. I owe the night to Mindi! This was my third concert since August and this one takes the cake! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!!!

Rita, Me and Charlotte

That's What the Water Made Me

We Got It Going On

Bed of Roses

All bowing at the "end"

Living on a Prayer

Tim’s Birthday!

Tim had his birthday on the 19th of this month (April) and it was a lot of fun. The boys were so excited to pick out presents for dad, on their own! I did nix a few ideas but they got dad “what they wanted.” In quotations because they chose what they wanted to get him but really chose what they wanted to have themselves. In fact, they are “keeping dad’s toys safe in my room mom.” They felt very grown up and Tim just took it all in with a smile. AND they didn’t even tell him what they got him before he opened the gifts! That is amazing!

So first, Tim and his friend Ben (who was here for a few days) took Pickle and Bacon to the Pima Air and Space Museum while I got to rest. I actually started on Tim’s cake and took care of other stuff. No rest for me on someone’s birthday! He brought them home at lunch and I ran to the store to get ingredients to finish the cake. After a little siesta for Ben, they took off for the Titan Missile Museum. A friend picked up Pach from school and I finished Tim’s cake…. with a little help or rather disastrous help from an inquisitive and curious little climber. I had one cake in the freezer getting cold so I could frost it. The other had it’s top chopped off (to make it level) and was sitting on the counter waiting for room in the freezer. I ran upstairs to take care of something for 5 minutes! I came back down and Bacon had pushed a chair over to the counter and played with the cake! He had scooped out the innards and put them all over the place! I found cake innards in cups, bowls and measuring cups! He’d even used one of my Cutco knives! Luckily he didn’t cut himself. He’d even mixed some chocolate chips with the cake innards! AAAHHHHHH!!!!! I had to perform surgery. Not the finest mommy moment.

I got it all fixed. Or at least the best it was going to be and put the whole cake together and finished frosting it. I just grabbed all the cake and stuffed it back in the shell, chocolate chips and all. Luckily all the dishes and knife were clean, or had been before he got to the cake. It looked really good but it was in sad shape on the inside!

Tim and Ben came back and we all piled in the van and headed out for birthday dinner at The Hot Rod Restaurant. The boys LOVE  it there. They have the restaurant part, that looks like an old time diner. It is separated from a huge garage by big windows. The garage is filled with hot rods and the boys just love to see them. They kept getting up from the table to run over and look at the cars. It was an exciting and crazy dinner!

After we got home, we opened the presents. The boys were just soooo excited and Tim just let them have fun. We then had the cake and ice cream. The boys loved the cake but it wasn’t the best. There was just no undoing the damage from Bacon or the fact that it was slightly overcooked. I used the pans Tim usually uses to make cakes and that was a mistake. I’ve never used them before, so….. Won’t happen again.

Pickle and Bacon helping dad open his present from them.

Bacon finishing the job.

Tim reading the card from Pach.

Pach helping dad open his gift.

 

Pickle helping dad open the group gift from the boys.

Pach helping dad open my gift to him.

Singing happy birthday and blowing out the candles. Bacon helped out.

Remote control truck with a trailer that hauls a car... From Pickle and Bacon.

Easter

This was mostly fun this year. On the 30th, the boys got to color Easter Eggs. That was very interesting. Bacon totally got it this year and was sooooo excited to dye them. He was so excited that he drank the colored vinegar water!! Oh man! I thought he would make a gross face but he didn’t! He actually tried to drink more!! AHHHHHH!!!! That child just amazes me sometimes! Tim got him a matching cup with just water in it. He seemed content with that but we watched and probably hovered a little more than was necessary at that point. Or at least I probably did.

After dying the Easter eggs it was bedtime and they weren’t happy about that but the Easter Bunny needed time to fill the eggs for the hunt, put them out and leave the Easter baskets. He was such a nice bunny and had everything all ready for Sunday morning. The older boys came down to look but they didn’t touch. It’s a good thing Bacon is still in a crib or all the eggs would have been opened and the contents eaten! Or at least a good portion of them.

After church the boys had to (im)patiently wait until dad got home to touch any Easter stuff. Before he got home they went down for a nap. They were a little cranky. Then I took a nap and they had to wait for me to wake up. They did mostly well. Bacon was very antsy but it all worked out. They got to look at their baskets and then off they headed to get the Easter Eggs! In the end all the eggs were divided evenly but watching them go crazy for the eggs was fun! Bacon was doing full on flops to get them! That boy just cracks me up.
After we had dinner and just before bed I thought it would be a good idea if they watched a video about why we celebrate Easter. We have talked to them numerous times that we celebrate Easter because of Christ. We usually have to explain Christmas is when He was born and Easter is after He died and came back to life. So we pulled out the video “To This End I Was Born” and watched it. I thought all went well. The boys asked a few questions and now they had a better understanding of what we had been explaining. Then 11:30 pm came and Tim and I were awakened by a Pickle, scared because of the video. *sigh* Here I was trying to be so good and teach my children the true and important meaning of Easter and ending up scaring him. That was the not so fun part.

So happy!

He actually looks mostly normal. Doesn't happen often!

So happy! Ignore the farmer's tan!

Inspection and thirst. Don't worry, it's the water cup.

ALL he wanted to do was PLAY WITH THE EGGS!!

Two at a time is better than one.

He wanted to smell the eggs.

The Easter baskets.

The happy boys with some of their goods.

Happy for the coloring book!

 

He really just wanted the hunt to begin!

He liked the coloring book too!

Ready! Set!

GO!

GO!

GO!

VACATION, maybe? (Part 3)

 The last night in Moab was ok. Bacon didn’t throw up anymore but he wasn’t feeling really well either. Since he was doing better we decided to continue on our way to the next stop… Durango, CO via The Four Corners.

THE FOUR CORNERS:

  This is a nice little place. The monument is the only thing there, surrounded by little shops to buy souvenirs. It’s a very clean, nicely kept place and the vendors were very nice. The boys LOVED it because it had ramps and walk ways they could run around on and protective rails they could climb on. They didn’t really care about anything else. They got to be out of the car running around free, so they were happy and content.
When you arrive there are 4 big walls, one in each state, with an opening to get into the monument. Those four walls house the vendors which have mostly jewelry, arrow heads, dream catchers and other cool Native American things for sale. There is a sidewalk that forms a square. From the corners of where the walls would meet if everything was enclosed, is a sidewalk leading to the middle where the 4 states meet. Each side has a plaque which talks about that particular state. Also there are the 4 flags in each state and a state seal. Each has it’s own little seating area and ramp to see the seal from higher up. It is quite a pretty little place
We got a bunch of pictures, bought a few souvenir things and then left. It was nice.

From the parking lot. You can see the flags inside.

Thankful for the safety railings.

Attempted boys only picture. Someone doesn't follow directions very well.

Family picture!

Tim in four places at once. Totally impressive! :)

Everything is something to climb and play on.

I'm in four places at once. Impressive! :)

The picture above is the very center. This picture and the following three pictures
will show you what it says on the edge of that metalic circle.

Add caption

Add caption

Add caption

This is what it looks like all around the monument.

Then it was off to Durango and Urgent Care. Although Bacon had NOT thrown-up again, he still wasn’t himself. He had been pulling at his ears (look at the pictures from part 2 in the jeep). He still had a fever. So we checked into our hotel and off I took him to Urgent Care. The verdict? An ear infection, again. It was his 3rd in 6 weeks. We hung out at the local Walgreens while they tried to find the medication the Urgent Care doctor had prescribed. Finally the pharmacist just called and got a new prescription. The pharmacy helper told me it was really gross and give him something with it. Great, on vacation, with a sick kid who has to take gross medicine. I thought the augmentin was bad but this stuff was worse.

We got back to the hotel and gave him a dose. He promptly threw-up because of course I forgot to give him something to take with it. We cleaned that mess up, got a clean set of blankets and while we were figuring out where to have dinner, Bacon, who was running around like a lunatic, tripped over a backpack and slid face first a few inches on the carpet. He stood up crying and bleeding. He’d got a horrible rug burn on his lip. He finally calmed down and I headed out with the older boys to get some dinner. I dropped everything off and took our clothes to the laundry mat a block away. We had planned to ride an old steam train up the mountains and Pach needed pants. I got everything I was going to wash done and headed back to the hotel where boys were laying bed watching TV, well the older boys anyway. Bacon was still running around like a lunatic. We finally got him settled down and he threw-up again on the bed. Nice. We pulled everything off the bed and hunkered down for the night. Tim, once again, slept at the end of the older boys bed and I snuggled with a very hot and toasty Bacon. He did ok once he settled down but then there was this popping noise and that drove me crazy. I didn’t get much sleep.

FRIDAY morning Tim said, “We are going home today. Bacon is sick and I’m done.” So I called and got our train tickets taken care of so we can go back and then we packed up the car and headed home. Probably no need to say this but being home felt really good. I mean, it always feels nice to be home when you’ve been gone but this time it felt really, really nice!

All in all it was a nice trip and mostly a vacation. It just would have been better if everyone had been healthy!